Carbureter



D. L. F. COOMBS.

CARBURETER.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 14, I917.

?atented Apr. 6, 1929.

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D. L. F. COOMBS.

CARBURETER.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 14, I917.

UNITED, STATES PATENT orunon.

DANIEL L. F. COOMBS, OF KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI.

CARBURETER.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, DANIEL L. F. CooMBs, a citizen of the United States,residing at Kansas City, in the county of Jackson, State of Missouri,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Carbureters, ofwhich the following is a full and exact specification.

I The present invention relates to means of carburation, and aims todevise an improved construction of such means with a view to producing 5more effective and intimate mixing action between the liquid fuel usedap ended claim.

and the air which is supplied'thereto, with theultimate object ofderiving a satisfactory grade of dry gaseous fuel from practically anyof the available grades of liquid fuel.

To this end an arrangement has been provided whereby the engine suctionis so utilized as to deliver air to the liquid fuel supply in such amanner as to produce a flow of air into or through said liquid andeii'ect a turbulent churning action on the latter and a consequentcomplete and thorough intermingling of the air and liquid. I

It is also sought to} devise a construction of the generalcharacterindicated in which proper provision is made for varying the action ofthe air on the liquid fuel and the consequent intermingling efiect, forthe purpose of regulating the character of the explosive mixture.

It is a further object to produce an extremely simple and efficientarrangement and construction for accomplishing the desired purpose,havingno complicatedmecha-nism to get out of: order, and which will be.economical and inexpensive to manufacture.

With these general objects in view, the invention will now be describedwith reference to the accompanying drawings illustrating means forembodying the improvements in actual practice, after which thosefeatures and combinations deemed to be novel will be set forth anddefined in the n the drawings- Figure 1 is a plan view of a carbureterembodying the present improvements; 7

Fig. 2 is a vertical section taken onthe line HH of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an endelevation of the device,

but on a reduced scale;

Fig. e s a transverse section, taken on Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 6, 1920.

Application filed February 14, 1917. Serial No. 148,599.

the line IVIV of Fig. 1, but also on a cast in upper and lower sections2 and 3,

respectively, adapted to be sealed and secured together in the relationshown by means of bolts or screws 4. The lower section 3 is formed withpartitions 6 and 8 for inclosing a' liquid fuel supply chamber, thespace between said partitions being arranged as a float chamber (seeFig. 2) in communication with the remainder of the fuel supply chamberby way of the opening 10 in the base of the partition 8. The remainderof the space forming the interior of the casing may be designated as avacuum chamber 12, the vacuum action within which is maintained by theengine suction through the connection 14 leading from the intakemanifold of the engine (not shown) and communicating with the chamber 12by way of the elbow conduit passage 16 which is provided with theordinary butterfly valve control 18 and extends down into the section 3of the casing between the partition 6 and the outer wall of the casing.There-- fore, it will be apparent that the carbureter shown consists ofa casing having a substantially circular liquid chamber in whichoperates the float 30, a second chamber for the perforate portion 41 ofthe valve which communicates with the liquid chamber through the port10, and a suction port diametrically opposite the second chamber fromwhich the tube 16 leads, and that an with the valve plug 20 having itsouter end 'secured to a pipe connection 22. The inner end of the valveplug 20 provides a valve seat for a needle valve 24 and also supports atubular guide member 26 having the ports 28 adjacent Said Valve seat.The valve 2 is automatically actuated to maintain a substantiallyconstant level of the fuel in said fuel chamber by the action of a float30 having a central passage for accommodating the guide member 26 andadapted to engage valve-actuating arms 32 which are pivotally mountedwithin the upper end portion of the member 26 where said arms areprovided with suitable connections with the stem of said valve.

Air for carburation purposes is admitted from the exterior of the casingby way of an elbow passage 34 formed by a conduit constructed integralwith the upper section 2 of the casing, said conduit having the inletfuel and a part or all of the air delivered to the liquid below thelevel of its surface. One form of such adjustable member is illustratedin Figs. 2 and 4, and comprises a tubular slide 40 operating within theverti-.

cal portion of said conduit 34 andhaving its lower end formed as aninverted cone extension, 41 provided with perforations 42 fordistributing the flow of air as it enters v the liquid. The adjustableslide member 40 may be regulated by means of a lever 44 pivoted withinthe horizontal portion of the conduit 34 and connected by a link 46 withthe slide 40, said lever being operated by a rod 48 from the driversseat. The arrangement is such that the slide may be elevated practicallyclear of the surface of the liquid or be lowered sufiiciently tosubmerge the extension 41 to any desired extent below thelevel of theliquid, the drawings illustrating said slide member in its raisedposition.

Alternative forms of construction for regulating the degree ofintermingling of air and liquid fuel are illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6.The form shown in Fig. 6 differs from that already described merely inconstructing the adjustable slide member 40' as .a hollow cylinder ofuniform diameter and raising and lowering the same to bring its lowerend. to the proper elevation with reference to the surface of the liquidfuel, but omitting the feature of the air distributing openings. In themodified construe 1 tion represented in Fig.- 5, the conduit 34 isextended entirely to the bottom of the liq-- uid fuel supply chamber andthelower half of said'conduit provided with a helically arranged slotopening 50. The adjustable slide member 40" in this case is alsolengthened to extend to the bottom of the fuel supply chamber andprovided with a longitudinal series of perforations 52 for cooperatingwith the slot opening 50 in the delivery of the air to the fuel liquid.The adjustment of the slide member 40 is effected by rotating it throughthe medium of a rod" 54 extending up through the section 2 ofthe casingwhere any suitable connection (not shown) may be associated with the rodfor operating the same. Obviously rotating the slide member 40" intodifferent positions serves to present different openings 52 in registerwith the opening 50, and this register of the openings, and consequentdelivery of the air, may be made to take place at any desired elevation.

An auxiliary air valveconstruction is provided in communication with thevacuum chamber 12, the same comprising a valve cage 56 adapted to bethreaded into an offset portion 58 of the section 2 of the casing, saidvalve cage carrying the check valve 60 secured to a valve stem 62 andoperating under the influence of the engine suction 'against the actionof two springs 64 and 66, the tension of which may be adjusted in anobvious manner by means of the nuts 68 retaining the spring 64 and theguide plug 70 threaded into said offset portion 58 into engagement withthe spring 66 and held set by the lock nut 72.

It will thus be apparent that a simple and effective arrangement andconstruction have been devised for carrying out the aforesaid objects ofthe invention. With the vacuum chamber 12 subjected to the influence ofthe enginesuction by way of the connection 14, it will be understoodthat a reduced pressure is maintained in said chamber, for compensatingwhich air will of course be drawn in through the conduit 34. By means ofthe form of conduit shown, havin the adjustable extension or slidemember, the principle of the spray method of carburation is dispensedwith and the air is conducted down into the body of the liquid fuelbelow its surface, and forced to surge through the liquid with theresult that a vigorous churning or ebullition of the liquid is producedso that the air is intimately mingled therewith. The degree of richnessof the explosive mixture which is formed may be conveniently andaccurately controlled by means of the adjustable slide member orextension, and where this memberis formed with the perforations fordistributing the air flow, this produces somewhat of anozzleeifect,distributing the air how and dividing it into strongvigorous currentsgreatly accelerated in velocity, which simply surge through the fuelliquid and violently agitate the same. The arrangement of perforationsas in Figs. 2 and 5 permits the slide member to be adjusted so that theair flow may be caused to take place entirely through the mass ofliquid,

or entirely over the surface of the same, or

as conditions may require. By this novel arrangement for feeding the airthrough the fuel liquid, an improved gaseous product is obtained, ascompared with that formed by spray carburation, in that the presentconstruction produces a dry gaseous mixture adapted for more perfectcombustion. The spray method appears always to produce a .more or lessmoist mixture, due to its refuel, and some of these particles neverbecome completely volatilized; but with the present construction thevaporizing action all takes place either within the body or mass of theliquid fuel or directly from its Surface, so that the fuel product thusformed leaves the liquid mass as a dry mixture without any appreciableamounts of liquid particles of the fuel being carried along with thecurrent. The action of the improved construction has proved to be ofsuch a thorough and effective nature that any of the common forms ofhydrocarbon fuels, including the inferior grades, may

be utilized, as Well as denatured alcohol and the like.

It will also be seen that the form and arrangement of the parts of thedevice are such as to facilitate the manufacture of the same in aneconomical and inexpensive manner.

While the foregoing represents what have been found to be practical andefiicient forms of construction for embodying the improvements, theright is reserved to such formal departures therefrom as may fairly beembraced within the scope of the appended claim.

I claim A carbureter comprising a casing, a liquid chamber in the casinghaving a float- -ontrol valved-inlet opening therein, a second chambercommunicating at its lower portion with the first chamber and having aspace above it, a third chamber diametrically opposite the secondchamber, a suction pipe depending within said third chamber andcommunicating with said space, an air inlet port in the casing above theliquid level in the second chamber, a sliding air-controlling member inthe air-inlet port and movable toward and away from said liquid and anauxiliary air valve adapted to admit air to said space.

In witness whereof 1 hereto affix my signature.

DANIEL L. i UUUMBS.

